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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks to bank executives to reassure investors - CNNPolitics
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks to bank executives to reassure investors - CNNPolitics
Mnuchin speaks with US bank executives to reassure investors after Wall Street whiplash
Washington (CNN) — In a precautionary move, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spent Sunday on the phone speaking with the chief executives of six of the country's largest banks to avoid yet another market whiplash when Wall Street opens Monday.
The secretary, who has been visiting his children in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, tried to get ahead of further market jitters following reports that President Donald Trump was consulting advisers about whether he had the legal authority to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
In a series of calls with CEOs, Mnuchin spoke with Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase, Tim Sloan of Wells Fargo and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs. He also called James Gorman of Morgan Stanley, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America and Citi's Michael Corbat. Each of the executives said they have "ample liquidity" to lend to consumers, businesses and perform other market operations, the Treasury Department said in a statement Sunday evening.
"We continue to see strong economic growth in the U.S. economy with robust activity from consumers and business," Mnuchin said in a statement. He added, "With the government shutdown, Treasury will have critical employees to maintain its core operations at Fiscal Services, IRS, and other critical functions within the department."
The secretary said none of the financial institutions had experienced "any clearance or margin issues" and "markets continue to function properly."
Mnuchin, who chairs the President's Working Group on financial markets, will also convene a call with Powell; Jay Clayton, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission; and Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, to discuss how regulators can assure normal market operations.
"It's being pre-emptive," a person familiar with the matter told CNN. "It's sending the proper message to the market so they can calculate the real picture into their Monday opening. They don't have to wait until something happens to be reassured."
Wall Street ended a brutal week on Friday on track for the worst month since the 2008 financial crisis, marking the a rout that has threatened to stop the longest-ever bull market.
In his conversations with executives, the person said, Mnuchin sought to convey the strength of the US economy despite recent market turbulence.
"The market volatility is not changing the strong fundamentals of the economy," said the person. "Systems remain normal."
It was the second time over the weekend Trump's top finance chief tried to send a reassuring message to investors over alleged plans to oust Powell.
A day earlier, Mnuchin tweeted that he had spoken with the President, relaying a message from Trump: "I never suggested firing Chairman Jay Powell, nor do I believe I have the right to do so."
It's not clear whether Trump has the authority to fire Powell without cause. But a decision by the President to fire his Fed chairman would likely exacerbate recent market volatility seen over the last several months, and top West Wing economic advisers have warned Trump such a move would only send markets nose-diving.
In recent months, Trump has continued to attack Powell, accusing the former investment banker of trying to undercut him politically by raising interest rates and slowing down the economy. Ahead of the Fed's final meeting last week, the President warned the Fed not to make "another mistake" to raise rates.
Interest rates have gone up seven times since Trump took office. Four of those increases have been under Powell.
When asked about pressure from the White House, Powell told reporters Wednesday, "we're going to do our jobs the way we've always done them," stressing the importance of the Fed's independence from political pressure. "Nothing will cause us to deviate from that."
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after interviewing with coupa, splunk and veeva and having had guidewire on my radar for some time, these declines are bringing them down to a much more affordable buy (for the longterm, based in info from interviews, and just cloud in general, growth over the next 5 years will be NICE). guess i gotta commit to a price point tho, the weekly volatility is making it so hard to call...definitely didn't expect to see splunk under $100 at this point.
Straight up menege trois.
Sold my amd stock early this morning for it.... 
Pissed I lost a bit of money when I brought the AMD stock last week...